Lessons from Jonah - Part One

“Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.’ But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. So the captain came and said to him, ‘What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.’ ” Jonah 1:1-6 This first chapter of the book of Jonah is all about God’s calling to Jonah to tell the people of Nineveh about the ways in which they were sinning - and giving them a call to repentance - and how Jonah chose to run in the opposite direction instead; trying to run away from the presence of the Lord. But as far as he made it, God still pursued him. God then (mercifully) gave Jonah a chance to re-think what he had been doing…and in Chapter 2, Jonah calls out to God from within the “great fish” with something that sounds like a Psalm, and the fish then vomits Jonah onto the dry land (what FUN!). The greatest joy we can receive in this life is to walk in the way that God has for us to go in…and if we attempt to run away from that and/or force our OWN wills, that deepest joy will elude us…and we will be lost. Looking for something that we can’t explain. That something being God’s own plan - which we’ve chosen to ignore. The beautiful thing is that, if we find ourselves having wandered away from what God has called us to, we can still cry out to Him from a pure heart…a heart of true repentance. When we do, God will hear us, and answer us - though it may not be in the way we expect. “When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!” Jonah 2:7-9 This is not to say that we should deliberately rebel against God all the time and just expect that, since He is merciful, he will forgive us. God is righteous…he is just. He gives grace, but he must also punish sin. Paul deals with this issue in Romans 6. “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. ” Romans 6:1-4 When we become Christians, we are to walk in “newness of life”. To live differently from the way the world lives…to obey God and trust God. Wherever He leads.